With the international trends toward xenophobia, isolationism, and protectionism, the panel will examine how the world music community can respond, practically and politically. The panel will:

(1) present strategies for coping with the ever-changing rules for artists traveling to the the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, and around the world. This will be most didactic of the sections, where we will draw on the expertise of WOMEX attendees to provide concise updates, primarily focussed on new issues that international artists face around the world in the current evolving artist mobility landscape.

(2) provide a forum for coordinating international advocacy efforts to remove and reduce barriers to artist mobility. Presented as a kind of guided round-table, this will be part panel, part discussion, and part brainstorming session, aimed at aligning stakeholders across the performing arts with a common goal of reducing impediments to international artist mobility.

(3) discuss the role that national and international labor organisations in this effort. Labour unions continue to hold a significant amount of political power, and the performing arts labor unions, and especially FIM, as the international organisations for musicians’ unions, is uniquely positioned to address the potentially conflicting interests internationalism with labor protectionism.